Body piercer 'rapist' started 'flipping and twisting' client's nipples

A body piercer accused of raping women and sexually assaulting customers started ‘flipping and twisting’ both nipples of one customer despite her visiting his studio to have only one pierced, a court heard today.

The woman claimed she had been left ‘embarrassed’ by the actions of Paul Saunders, 51, but believed at the time that it may have been part of the procedure.

She also described how on another occasion Saunders had her lie naked in his studio for an hour so he could examine a genital piercing - before hugging her tightly when she stood up naked to get dressed.

Saunders, who is described by prosecutors as ‘a cunning and manipulative sexual predator’, is accused of sexually assaulting a series of women after they paid him for intimate piercings at Scarz & Barz in Ipswich, Suffolk.

The accuser in court today, who gave evidence from behind a screen, described how the defendant asked her to strip off her top and bra and lie on a bed when she went to have her left nipple pierced.

‘He tried to convince me to have both done but I only wanted one. He started talking to me, and it seemed a really long time,’ she told jurors.

‘He then said to me that in order to perform the piercing, he had to make my nipples erect, and he started to play with both of them.

‘He started flipping and twisting them and carried on talking to me whist he was doing it. He made a comment about how I had nice breasts and must get a lot of attention because of them. I didn’t say anything. I was embarrassed.’

The woman, who can’t be identified for legal reasons, said they later exchanged messages and met up a few times.

During a visit to his flat, she said she saw messages from ‘young girls and their parents’ on his laptop, along with selfie-type pictures of girls and naked body parts including pierced nipples and vaginas.

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Saunders described himself as a ‘confidante’ of girls who had emotional difficulties or vulnerabilities and sometimes came from ‘broken family situations’, the woman said.

She added: ‘He said he saw himself as a saviour. They looked up to him and asked him for advice.’

She went on to get other piercings from him and later returned to his studio to get him to check a vertical clitoral hood piercing that he had performed on her a year earlier.

‘He asked me to take of my clothes from my top and bottom half and I was naked in the room for about an hour,’ the woman said.

‘My boyfriend was in the waiting room, and he (Saunders) asked me if I was getting on well with him. He made a comment when he was checking my piercing, saying he didn’t believe that I was getting on with my boyfriend.

‘He asked me to stand up naked and give him a hug before I got dressed. He held me quite tightly for a while.’

The witness regarded the consultation as ‘really degrading’ but explained that she didn’t walk out because she feared her boyfriend’s reaction.

‘He could get quite violent and I was not confident of going out and causing a scene,’ she told the court.

Under cross-examination by Vanessa Marshall KC, the woman agreed that Saunders told her during her first piercing that she should tell him if she felt uncomfortable about anything.

She admitted not mentioning to police that both her nipples had been flicked when she originally gave a statement, explaining she had only remembered it later.

Asked why she didn’t challenge her alleged abuser, she said she was ‘not assertive’.

‘I am not very good at these situations. I have been in an abusive relationship previously and I am not one to speak out. It was uncomfortable. I just wanted it done and finished,’ she said.

However, she admitted sending a string of messages to Saunders, who is nicknamed Poz, including one describing him as an ‘awesome’ piercer.

She also complimented him in his studio’s comments book, saying he had made her ‘comfortable and relaxed’ and was ‘extremely professional’.

And in a Christmas card, she described him as ‘an amazing person to know’.

Saunders, who featured on the Channel 4 documentary series My Body My Rules, denies three rapes which are alleged to have taken place in his home, six sexual assaults and one incident of assault by penetration.

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The alleged offences involving nine women are said to have happened between June 2012 and February 2020.

Saunders is also said to have kept pictures of vaginas and breasts he had pierced in a password protected folder on his phone ‘for his sexual gratification’.

The alleged offences came to light during the Covid pandemic after he claimed he had managed to get a Covid-19 test as ‘an essential worker’ which had proved negative.

A wave of people objected to this description of himself in April 2020 on the Facebook page.

It led to a former girlfriend sticking a poster with his photo on a lamppost above a message saying ‘Free hugs with every piercing’ - but the word ‘hugs’ was crossed out and replaced with the word ‘groping’.

A stream of complaints followed from women complaining about Saunders’ behaviour, prosecutor Rossano Scamardella KC has told the jury.

Police became involved after a private Facebook group called ‘Safe Space’ was set up for anyone who had allegedly suffered at his hands to share their experiences.

Saunders has denied behaving inappropriately with clients and insisted to police that any sex he had was consensual.

He told officers that ‘some people who thought he had scarred them had gone on to form a Me Too group on Facebook’ and had got together to ‘get evidence that he was a bad person’ and to ‘vent anger against him’.

Saunders insisted to police that he had safeguards in place in his studio with receptionists asking if clients were OK as they left his treatment room, and CCTV cameras.

He added that he only pierced nipples of girls aged over 16 and only did genital piercings for over 18s. All clients were asked to produce ID to prove their age and those having genital piercings normally ‘asked for someone to accompany them’, he added.

The trial continues.